Halloween, Reformation Day, All Saints Day, and the Guy Fawkes commemorations all have roots back into European and English Church history. Here we are reminded of the Christian contexts within which these now highly commercialized occasions came about.
Any of you who regularly follow persecution news may find that it gets hard to read after a while. One can become either despondent or desensitized. This is how a persecution journalist handles it.
Rather than opportunities for evangelism, church growth, fundraising, or even as an individual's story, persecution is the missional activity of a faith community. The global Church needs a richer theology of persecution and suffering.
Much of the New Testament is written in the contexts of severe persecution. We too easily don't realize this when we read it. But when we do, we should quickly see that how remember and respond to the persecuted reveals our response to Jesus Christ.
As we mature we can expect to experience life-transforming "aha" moments that change everything for us. We suddenly see things more clearly and in a different way. This is common as we grow and it is best that we lean into Spirit-led changes. It is best we be prepared.
Churches' focus on the young and nuclear families has a danger of neglecting the elderly and other forms of family. Reflecting on her experience at Lausanne 4, an Asian doctor appeals to churches to take seriously the challenges of aging and isolation, not to forget, but to re-member them into the Body of Christ.
Churches today can become far too obsessed with numerical growth at the expense of other important factors. A Nigerian pastor recommends we do not forget the issues of sustainability.
One of the most successful indigenous gospel movements of colonial missions history was short lived, interrupted by the oppressive ethnocentric Christianity of colonial settlers whose witness failed to match biblical expectations. While outsiders are often powerfully catalytic for the gospel where the gospel is least known, missions is filled with accounts of the gospel spread being hindered by outsider Christians. We can improve gospel effectiveness with greater trust in indigenous/insider beli
Around the world we seem to have an identity crisis in the language of missions as missions conducted by black or brown people adopts missions thinking originating from white Westerners. This remains evident in the African American and Afro Caribbean missions movements as seen through the eyes of a Malawian living in the UK.
To become spiritually mature in Christ we need to grow out of a mono-cultural perspective. The easiest way to do that is to be exposed to different perspectives that broaden our understanding of God's world, moving from an us and them mentality to a richer inclusivity. Here's why...
Part one of two part series exploring the construction of race in South Africa's history that diminished the dignity of the ancient first inhabitants of the southern Cape that pre-existed darker-skinned Bantu peoples. A descendant of the indigenous speaks out with a dream of how the gospel can bring about the kind of transformation his ancestors saw.
The continuation of a two part series highlighting the continuation of race constructed in South Africa's history that diminished the dignity of the ancient first inhabitants of Africa's southern Cape. A descendant of the indigenous speaks out with a dream of how the gospel can bring about the kind of transformation his ancestors saw.
